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scombridaeon Trying to get a bunch of GPUs on Google Cloud

Google should not be able to impede economic activity

Bad producers can only impede as much activity as stupid consumers give them.

scombridaeon Ask HN: What are some good games to play in a video call?

Hide the Salami. Google "Jeff Toobin" for how to play.

scombridaeon Ask HN: How old is your current PC/Laptop?

I don't know how old it is, but I got it for $29. I plan to use it for at least 11 years.

scombridaeon Emacs 29 is nigh

you convince yourself it won't be like this one day

In case you're considering a career in software, no, the feeling of groping around in the dark never disappears.

scombridaeon Emacs 29 is nigh

I like vim but emacs won the editor wars

It's hard to imagine a definition of "win" that goes from roughly 50% popularity to less than 5%.

scombridaeon Emacs 29 is nigh

System Crafters youtube channel driving me towards Emacs

I really don't get how watching a PM-type struggle with emacs for two hours at a spell is compelling or instructive. I can struggle with emacs all by myself.

scombridaeon Ask HN: How do you make money / profits as a programmer?

Sue your employer.

scombridaeon Ask HN: Any advice for someone starting a job at a new company?

Do: date your superior.

Don't: date your subordinate.

scombridaeon Ask HN: What music do you listen to while working?

Taylor Swift.

scombridaeon Ask HN: How to gain support for free/open-source contributions within a company?

You, and millions before you, all ask ("how to support OSS") and answer ("money") the same question, and at 400 words, the time you took is close to average.

scombridaeon Why some feces float and others sink

Butters knows

You won the internet today, sir.

scombridaeon The Case for the F-35

Human pilots were already rapidly being phased out during the era of The Right Stuff (50s and 60s). It's impossible for me to believe manned fighter jets can compete with drones on a financial or tactical level.

scombridaeon Ask HN: What to do about underperforming coworker

I'm with the other poster who expressed incredulity at being "dragged down." If anything, I fear the opposite -- being paled in comparison to an overachiever.

scombridaeon Ask HN: Which Sci-Fi book(s) inspired you to build something amazing?

That's not really how engineering works. What ultimately seems whiz-bang (light bulb, aviation, iphone) evolves piecemeal from existing infra and a million false starts. They don't emerge from the thrall of "I, Robot", which is less about the tech so much as the emotional exploration of a what-if.

scombridaeon Ask HN: What's something productive I can do with my hands during zoom meetings?

Jeff Toobin might have a few ideas.

scombridaeon Ask HN: I want to propose spinning out my work from current employer. How?

Has anyone tried to do this?

Yes, and everyone who did got served a cease-and-desist. Not everyone however asked for 500k from the aggrieved on top of stealing their IP. That's some next-level ballsiness worthy of a true pioneer.

scombridaeon The ethics of reclining airplane seats

The fiduciary agreement exists between you and the airline, not other passengers. Recline as much as the aircraft hardware allows. Don't like it? Buy a business class seat.

scombridaeon Ask HN: What's something productive I can do with my hands during zoom meetings?

something I can do with my hands

You really teed it up there.

scombridaeon Ask HN: What technology seems like magic to you?

How an office printer manages to pick out a single sheet from the tray.

scombridaeon Ask HN: What’s the unspoken situation with substance abuse by tech workers?

...especially in tech companies.

Substitute any other industry, and your statement is just as valid or speculative. It's unspoken because you mind your own station, and you don't talk shit about your peers.

scombridaeon Ask HN: What technology seems like magic to you?

Google search. How so fast?

Google autocomplete. How so accurate?

Good job Google!

scombridaeon Ask HN: How do I thrive as part of an unambitious team?

Most reachers like yourself actively seek situations to be the shark in the guppy pool.

scombridaeon Why Lisp?

tl;dr The parenthesized NPN (aka s-expressions) turns novices off to Lisp but in fact facilitates side-effect-free, syntax-free versatility. The long-winded code snippets author uses are terrible.

scombridaeon Ask HN: Have you ever been ripped off?

It's not a bribe if you get nothing in return.

scombridaeon Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?

I almost lost a wrist trying to twist off a bike pedal the wrong way. Also, toilet handles, but those were more transparently reversed.

scombridaeon [dead]

Riding on someone else's stroke, even if it means you get tossed later, is often the only way to get a peek and a taste of that sweet nectar.

scombridaeon Ask HN: Lisp and Artificial Intelligence

Most AI during that time revolved around minimax, i.e, the chess move I play should be a response to the move you'd play if you were me, which is the move I'd play if I were you, etc. Lisp's inherent recursiveness lent itself to that theme.

scombridaeon Ask HN: What Is Serverless

Instead of keeping it under your mattress, you can give your cash to a bank with the guarantee of making withdrawals anytime, anywhere. Serverless is like a bank for information, not money.

scombridaeon GitHub Copilot investigation

But this has long been the deal. In order to offer their services gratis, Big Tech makes money on your data, which you've freely provided. Welcome to the last twenty years of the software economy?

scombridaeon VS Code Org Mode

It's markdown with Excel's ease of creating buttons (in org-mode's case ascii buttons) to execute arbitrary callbacks, e.g., cross referencing, summarizing, sorting, etc.

It primarily appeals to weekly status jockeys (project managers) whose rudimentary programming skills are just good enough to hack some emacs lisp. As someone who doesn't mind grepping an omnibus "notes.txt" file and thinks "literate programming" is a waste of time, I've never found a use for org-mode.